Many of us have just spent some time gathered around the table with our
families and close friends for a Thanksgiving feast. This may be a
teachable moment, when we can connect the dots that form a picture of
family life and family identity.
Families seem busier now than
when I was a child. It's easy to understand, particularly with more
two-career households, more activities for children and youth, and
significant shifts in cultural values. When something has to give,
family meals may fall by the wayside. And yet, family meals are not
only a time for strengthening family ties and keeping track of your
children's lives, they can actually lead to better physical and mental
health for your children and for the entire family.
Studies in
recent years have concluded that family meals are a central feature in
better nutrition, mental health, academic achievement, vocabulary,
parenting, and family life in general. Many of us can recall how we
learned the story of our family and came to an understanding of our
place in that family while sitting at the table with our families.
Have
you noticed that as the trend away from family dining has increased,
worship patterns on Sundays have also changed? I suspect the same
factors that make it more difficult to gather the family around the
dinner table also make it more difficult for Christians to gather
around the Lord's Table. I invite you to consider that the health and
well-being of the Church is impacted by regular worship in ways that
are similar to ways our families are impacted by regular family meals.
When God calls us together as to recall the family story and share in
the family meal, we are nourished and formed as Christians. We remember who and
whose we are.
Maybe the adage, "The Family That Prays Together
Stays Together," is not so trite after all. I do understand that many
people do not have good memories of family and home. Many have not
found the church family all that wonderful either. However, there is
universal hunger for a sense of belonging and identity that we might
call "family feeling." Those who have found surrogate families will
tell you how much it means. Those who have returned to their church
families or found new ones will tell you how it has impacted their
spiritual journey.
Now is a good time to pause and reflect on
the busyness of our lives and consider what valuable times with our
families and our church family have been crowded out. If we are too
busy to gather around the table – at home or at church – maybe we are
just too busy for our own good and the good of those whose lives are
closely linked with ours. At home and at church, we need that time
together!